Entreat

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -iːt

Origin

From Anglo-Norman entretier, from Old French entraiter, from en- + traiter.

Full definition of entreat

Noun

1. Alternative form of entreaty
• 2006, Khaled Abou El Fadl, The Search for Beauty in Islam: A Conference of the Books, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 978-0-7425-5094-0, page 236:In the Muslim world, the most compelling and decisive books are those full of confessions written on the flesh of victims, and the most earnest prayers are the entreats for mercy screamed in pain and anguish at the tormentors and flesh and thought.

Verb

1. (obsolete) To treat, or conduct toward; to deal with; to use.
• ShakespeareFairly let her be entreated.
• Bible, Jer. xv. 11I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well.
2. To treat with, or in respect to, a thing desired; hence, to ask earnestly; to beseech; to petition or pray with urgency; to supplicate; to importune.
• ShakespeareI do entreat your patience.
• Edgar Allan Poesome late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door
3. To beseech or supplicate (a person); to prevail upon by prayer or solicitation; to try to persuade.
• RogersIt were a fruitless attempt to appease a power whom no prayers could entreat.
• 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII“But I cannot persuade her to go away, my lady,” said the footman; “nor can any of the servants. Mrs. Fairfax is with her just now, entreating her to be gone; but she has taken a chair in the chimney-comer, and says nothing shall stir her from it till she gets leave to come in here.”
• 1937, Frank Churchill and Leigh Harline, “One Song”, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney:One heart
  Tenderly beating
  Ever entreating
  Constant and true
4. (obsolete) To invite; to entertain.
• Spenserpleasures to entreat
5. (obsolete) To treat or discourse; hence, to enter into negotiations, as for a treaty.
• Hakewillof which I shall have further occasion to entreat
• Bible, 1 Mac. x. 47Alexander ... was first that entreated of true peace with them.
6. (obsolete) To make an earnest petition or request.
• KnollesThe Janizaries entreated for them as valiant men.

Anagrams

• ternate